Crystal Eastman was born in "Marlborough, Massachusetts, on June 25, 1881, the third of four children. Her oldest brother, Morgan, was born in 1878 and died in 1884 at age seven. The second brother, Anstice Ford Eastman, who became a general surgeon, was born in 1878 and died in 1937. Max was the youngest, born in 1882. In 1883 their parents, Samuel Elijah Eastman and Annis Bertha Ford, moved the family to "Canandaigua, New York. In 1889, their mother became one of the first women ordained as a "Protestant minister in America when she became a minister of the "Congregational Church.[2] Her father was also a Congregational minister, and the two served as pastors at the church of "Thomas K. Beecher near "Elmira. This part of "New York was in the so-called ""Burnt Over District." During the "Second Great Awakening earlier in the 19th century, its frontier had been a center of evangelizing and much religious excitement, which resulted in the founding of the "Shakers and "Mormonism. During the antebellum period, some were inspired by religious ideals to support such progressive social causes as "abolitionism and the "Underground Railroad.

Crystal and her brother "Max Eastman were influenced by this progressive tradition. Their parents were friendly with the writer "Mark Twain. From this association young Crystal also became acquainted with him.

She continued to campaign for occupational safety and health while working as an investigating attorney for the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations during "Woodrow Wilson's presidency. She was at one time called the "most dangerous woman in America," due to her "free-love idealism and outspoken nature.

During a brief marriage to Wallace J. Benedict which ended in divorce, Eastman moved to "Milwaukee and managed the unsuccessful 1912 "Wisconsin "suffrage campaign.[3]

When she returned east in 1913, she joined "Alice Paul, "Lucy Burns, and others in founding the militant "Congressional Union, which became the "National Woman's Party. After the passage of the "19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920, Eastman, Paul, and two others wrote the "Equal Rights Amendment, first introduced in 1923. One of the few socialists to endorse the ERA, she warned that protective legislation for women would mean only discrimination against women. Eastman claimed that one could assess the importance of the ERA by the intensity of the opposition to it, but she felt that it was still a struggle worth fighting. She also delivered the speech, "Now We Can Begin" following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, outlining the work that needed to be done in the political and economic spheres to achieve gender equality.

When the United States entered World War I, Eastman organized with "Roger Baldwin and "Norman Thomas the "National Civil Liberties Bureau to protect "conscientious objectors, or in her words: "To maintain something over here that will be worth coming back to when the weary war is over." The NCLB grew into the "American Civil Liberties Union, with Baldwin at the head and Eastman functioning as attorney-in-charge. Eastman is credited as a founding member of the ACLU, but her role as founder of the NCLB may have been largely ignored by posterity due to her personal differences with Baldwin.[6]

In 1916 Eastman married the British editor and antiwar activist Walter Fuller, who had come to the United States to direct his sisters’ singing of folksongs.[9] They had two children, "Jeffrey and Annis. They worked together as activists until the end of the war; then he worked as the managing editor of The Freeman until 1922, when he returned to "England. He died in 1927, nine months before Crystal, ending his career editing "Radio Times for the "BBC.

After Max Eastman's periodical "The Masses was forced to close by government censorship in 1917, he and Crystal co-founded a radical journal of politics, art, and literature, "The Liberator, early in 1918.[3] She and Max co-edited it until they put it in the hands of faithful friends in 1922.[10]

She traveled by ship to "London to be with her husband at times. In New York, her activities led to her being blacklisted during the "Red Scare of 1919-1920. She struggled to find paying work.

During the 1920s her only paid work was as a columnist for feminist journals, notably Equal Rights and "Time and Tide. Eastman claimed that "life was a big battle for the complete feminist," but she was convinced that the complete feminist would someday achieve total victory.

Eastman has been called one of the United States' most neglected leaders, because, although she wrote pioneering legislation and created long-lasting political organizations, she disappeared from history for fifty years. "Freda Kirchwey, then editor of "The Nation, wrote at the time of her death: "When she spoke to people—whether it was to a small committee or a swarming crowd—hearts beat faster. She was for thousands a symbol of what the free woman might be."[6]

Her speech "Now We Can Begin", given in 1920, is listed as #83 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank).[11][12]